Antigua Credit Card Fraud Affects Many Yachts

Following the earlier news item on the Bank of Antigua ATM in English Harbour, Noonsite has been contacted by several people whose credit card details were copied and used for fraudulent withdrawals. Anyone who used the ATM in question is urged to look at their bank records as it seems some transactions are only showing up now in April.

Ruth Coulter emailed Noonsite on April 19th:

"I had notification from my bank last week that my Mastercard had been used for cash withdrawls in Ukraine. I did not know where it had been skimmed until reading about other people having problems after using the ATM in English Harbour in Antigua; I was there in March and tried using the ATM. (I only discovered AFTER putting in my pin number that the machine does not accept Mastercard.) We just checked our personal account to discover that a number of withdrawals had been made, amounting to a large sum of money, over the past 5 days. The transactions took place in Canada and Russia (that we could identify). The worrying thing is that the first withdrawal only happened over a month after we left Antigua so there could be people still to discover the problem. Also, we were there in mid March so it had obviously been happening for quite a while.
Ruth Coulter, SY Thunder.

My card was copied in English Harbor at the Bank of Antigua branch and I lost 2000 dollars. Hope they catch the b-------.
Bill Stellin

Thanks for the warning about the Bank of Antigua, at English Harbour, 2 people from our boat ASTRA, have had money debited from various sources (USA and Russia) as a result of using that ATM in February 2008. (Transactions have only now appeared in April) What a nightmare!!
Jeremy Paul

We had money stolen from our bank account by a card clone somewhere in English harbour Antigua, probably the ATM machine. A lot of our Norwegian friends also had the same problem.
Chris Swain, SY Sea Squared

We just returned from the Classic in Antigua and our ATM cards were used at the Stanford Bank ATM in English Harbor to get cash. Yesterday while we were enroute home the maximum daily ATM withdrawal was taken from our account from somewhere in Illinois. We immediately contacted our bank.
I would encourage anyone who used the ATM's in Antigua to immediately visit their bank upon returning home and obtain a new PIN. If you can wait 10 days for a new card then cancel your ATM card and have a new one issued!

Ed

I have just come back from Antigua Sailing Week and fortunately was forewarned of the problems there - I met several friends who had been affected. Initially it was thought that the ATM in Nelson's Dockyard had been hacked, but it now transpires that the fraud might have been more widespread on the island. After the Antigua Bank reacted like an ostrich, Stanford International are now employing an IT fraud specialist. If you have been hit you are meant to file a police report, but the police are totally disinterested in doing anything ("collect it in St John's next week" was the response from the English Harbour station) so the Marina Office and bookstore in Falmouth are compiling all the pertinent information.